Additional Skills

Here are four additional skills that you may wish to add to your campaigns. Each skill is described in detail just as it is in the James Bond 007 basic game book, explaining how the skill is used and when it may be called into play.

Additional Skill Formulas

Skill

Primary Chance

Forgery

PER + Skill Level

Instruction

INT + Skill Level

Languages

INT + Skill Level

Outdoor Survival

[(PER + WIL)/2] + Skill Level

Forgery

Base Time: 4 hoursSuccess: Affects the chances of the forged document
being recognized by an observerInformation: Does not apply to this skillRepair: 10 hours

These tasks involve the character attempting to copy signatures and forge documents while in the field. The character must have access to the proper equipment, which, depending on the document, can range from tracing paper to large photographic scanners.

In all cases, the GM rolls D100 in secret to determine how successful the forgery will be. If the roll results in failure, there is still a chance the forgery will fool an NPC. The better the quality rating however, the less chance the NPC will have of recognizing the fakery. An NPC will be given a Perception roll to determine whether he has seen through the fakery.

GM Note: Similar to the Disguise skill, an NPC examining forged documents will get a PER roll equal to the Quality Rating of the player’s Forgery roll. If the Forgery roll was a Failure, the NPC gets an Ease Factor 10 PER roll.

The Forgery skill is used only for forgeries improvised in the field, such as when Bond tried to pass himself off as Russian nuclear physicist Dr. Mikhail Arkov in The World is Not Enough. If the characters should need forged passports and the like when they leave London on a mission, M.I.6 will provide high-quality fakes with a Quality Rating of 1 or 2.

Instruction

Base Time: 24 hoursSuccess: Modifies another character’s chance to use a skillInformation: As indicated by the Skill Use ChartRepair: Does not apply to this skill

Through Instruction, a character may educate another in the rudiments of a skill. The learning character will then get a lessened penalty when attempting the newly learned skill for a number of days equal to his Intelligence rating. Characters already possessing the skill may be granted a certain number of “bonus” levels in the skill, again for as many days equal to the character’s Intelligence rating.

In both cases, the teaching character (the one using this skill) must have the skill he is attempting to teach, and it must be at a higher Skill Level than the learning character.

Successful use of Instruction on characters who do not possess the skill being taught will result in a lessening of the -3 Ease Factor penalty applied to unskilled characters. Characters with the skill being taught gain bonus Skill Levels. This table summarizes these effects.

LEARNING CHARACTER

QUALITY RATING

Without Skill

Failure

4

3

2

1

Ease Factor mod

-3

-2

-1

0

0*

With Skill

Failure

4

3

2

1

Bonus Skill Levels

0

1

2

3

3*

*The learning character gains a permanent level in the desired skill. Hero Points may not be used to turn a lesser result into a Quality Result 1; it must be rolled.

Note that bonus or permanent levels granted through Instruction may not exceed the maximum allowed by a player’s Characteristics.

You may also find this skill handy when trying to explain something complicated to an NPC, such as when Bond tried (unsuccessfully) to tell Mary Goodnight how to turn off the Solex Agitator in The Man with the Golden Gun.

GM Note: You should beware of players abusing this skill. It is best used as a device to temporarily toughen your player characters up for a particularly dangerous mission. Some examples of this skill in use from the movies include Bond’s participation in Tiger Tanaka’s ninja school in You Only Live Twice, or his education in heraldry by Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This skill is not intended as a means for unscrupulous characters to earn skills without paying the appropriate Experience Points.

Languages

Base Time: 10 minutesSuccess: Allows a character to use a foreign languageInformation: As indicated by the Skill Use ChartRepair: Does not apply to this skill

Characters with this skill may speak a number of languages. The exact number of languages known by the character will equal the character’s Skill Level, not including the character’s native tongue. For example, a character with Languages at level four can know four additional languages.

A character with this skill does not have to state what languages are known by the character. He can wait and declare that his character knows language when it is encountered. Once a language is declared as being known, the character must record that fact on his character record sheet. Once a character’s Language Skill Levels are assigned, that character may not declare that he knows any unfamiliar language encountered until he increases his Language skill and has a Skill Level in reserve.

The player does not have to roll for Language use whenever he uses a non-native language. A Languages roll will only be needed in unusual circumstances, such as trying to understand someone during a gunfight, or trying to overhear a whispered conversation. The player will never have to use this skill for his native language, unless it is an extreme dialect the character is unfamiliar with (such as a person raised in the Queen’s English trying to understand a person from the Louisiana bayous).

GM Note: When creating new characters, you may wish to grant the Languages skill at Level 1 in addition to Driving and Charisma. You may also decide that the use of Languages is a prerequisite or provides a bonus when rolling for the Charisma or Local Customs skills.

The use of this skill to suddenly declare that a character “knows” a language is in keeping with the cinematic tradition of James Bond, where he always seems to know the local dialect. (Think of the “Instant Japanese” scene with Moneypenny in You Only Live Twice.) If your campaign is based more on the Ian Fleming novels or the real world, you can have players declare which languages they know before performing their mission.

Outdoor Survival

Base Time: 30 minutesSuccess: Allows a character to survive in inhospitable climatesInformation: As indicated by the Skill Use ChartRepair: 3 hours

This skill allows the character to live off the land, find food and water, identify dangerous plants and animals, protect himself from exposure and sickness, and the like. You will make an Outdoor Survival roll when your character is under-equipped for a particular area, or assigned a mission in a hostile climate. Examples would include being stranded on a desert island or trying to infiltrate an arctic stronghold in Siberia. The Outdoor Survival roll should be made on a daily basis to see if your character has found food and water. Additional rolls might be required in a particularly dangerous situation.

Lack of available resources such as tools, food and water would mean a -1 to -5 Ease Factor modifier. Very benign conditions (well equipped characters, pleasant climate, lots of food, etc.) would mean a +1 to +3 Ease Factor modifier. Outdoor Survival use might also apply to situations involving tracking or being lost.

GM Note: The consequences of failing an Outdoor Survival roll should depend on how badly the roll was failed by and the character’s current situation. Failing one roll should only lead to mild discomfort or a Light Wound for the character, while failing Outdoor Survival rolls over several days could be fatal.